


Missiles & Old Friends

by GachMoBrea



Series: Fostering Strength [9]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: (But it's VERY slightly), (Poor thing!), AU, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe: Foster Family, BigBrother!Len, Brother!Barry, Fake Police Procedures, Father!Joe, Foster Family, Gen, Len & Eddie are still having issues., Len breaks the rules..., Lisa's part is very small..., OOC, OverProtective!Len, S01E10, Scolding, Siblings, Sister!Iris, Sister!Lisa, Slightly Episode Related
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-28
Updated: 2016-11-28
Packaged: 2018-09-02 18:58:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8679604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GachMoBrea/pseuds/GachMoBrea
Summary: Len is an unhappy person.First, Barry is shot at with missiles.Then, Eddie kisses Iris in the precinct, which is only topped when the break-in case that he works with Joe ends up being connected to an old friend: Mick RoryBut the Len isn't the only one being annoyed...





	

"They shot MISSILES at you?!"  
"Hey, I threw one back and caused an awesome explosion."  
Len rubs a hand over his face as he sits across his foster brother at a diner. The brothers were having lunch together, the younger informing the older of his latest training experiences.  
"You're not normal," Len says with a shake of his head. "No one on your team is normal."  
"Which matches my life because, honestly, is our family normal?"  
Len's glare calms down to a something a little more fond. He points a finger at his foster brother, "No more missiles."  
Barry shrugs, "Cisco actually wants to use ones with lasers next time."  
"Are you kidding me?!" Len barks, nearly jumping out of his seat and making everyone else in the diner look over to the brothers.  
"Len, calm down," Barry raises his hands as he smiles at the viewers to let them know everything was fine.  
"If Sicko gets you killed, so help me, Barry," Len's fist clench as he thinks of all the ways to take a man apart.  
"Woah there, Major Anger," the brunette laughs. "I'm the one who asks for these training sessions. You can't go blaming my team for just doing what I ask for."  
"So I should be less concerned about their batch of crazy and concentrate on discovering the reason behind your suicidal tendencies?"  
Barry blinks at his brother in surprise. "My what now?"  
"Never mind," Len sighs, leaning back in his chair to get at his wallet. "This one's on me. You get the next one."  
After paying, the brothers take Len's car to head back to the precinct.

 

Before they can get to their destination, both men are called in to a crime scene at a customs warehouse. A break-in and robbery.  
Len parks the car and Barry speed runs to get his kit from the precinct. When they arrive at the crime scene, Joe is already there. The man waves his boys over to where he was standing at a hole in the side of the building.  
"Some serious fire power," Len muses as he takes in the charred edges of the hole.  
"Most definitely an explosive ordinance of some sort," Barry agrees as he puts down his kit to get at his gloves.  
"Maybe the perp used a missile?" the older brother remarks, giving the brunette a pointed look.  
"I don't want to know whatever fight you two are secretly having," Joe tells them as he steers his older son away from the hole. "From the log books, it seems like only one car was stolen."  
The detective looks over the paperwork as he stops at an empty space with a discarded car cover lying on the ground. He finds the right one and shows the trainee a picture of a red sports car.  
"Thief's got good taste at least," Len admires as he looks the picture over. He hands it back to the detective before walking over to the discarded cover. With gloves on, he picks it up to look it over. When he finds a black smug, he smiles.  
"What?" Joe knows that smile, knows his boy found something.  
"Looks like our perp was a but of a novice," the trainee remarks as he stands. He takes a picture of the smidge with his phone to give his faster father a better look of it. "He left a dirty finger print."  
"An easy case?" the detective is smiling now. "That would be a nice change."  
"I'll run this at the precinct," Len pockets his device. "If that's okay?"  
"Yeah, sure," Joe nods his head. "Barry and I will finish up here."  
"Okay," Len pats his foster father on the shoulder, then leaves the crime scene.

\---

Len walks into the precinct and finds Iris and Eddie kissing.  
"Hey!" he barks, startling the couple and making the blonde detective nearly fall out of his seat.  
"Len," Iris rolls her eyes as she looks to her foster brother with her arms crossed over her chest. "I thought you were over this?"  
"And I thought I made my stand very clear on displays of affection and where they should take place," Len counters. He looks down at the detective as he sits awkwardly in his chair, trying not to fall out of hit. "If you must kiss my sister, do it where I can't see."  
"I kissed him," Iris corrects her brother.  
"Then the rule can apply to you as well," he counters. "I'm not that finicky."  
"Why you!" Iris swings at her foster brother but he steps away, dodging it then walks out of the room.  
"He's going to kill me one day, isn't he?" Eddie asks as he finally allows himself to move and get back into his chair properly. "One day, I'm going to wake up and he's going to be looming over me with an ice pick."  
"No he's not," Iris huffs a laugh as she turns back to her boyfriend. "Deep down, Len doesn't hate you."  
"That's really, really deep down, Iris."  
"I know, honey," she moves to kiss him but he dodges, eyes moving beyond her to see if Len was looming in the doorway.  
Iris pulls her lips into her mouth in frustration. She straightens, turns on her heels, and stomps out of the room.

\---

Later at home, while Iris goes through her things with her father to figure out what she wanted to bring with her to Eddie's, she brings her problem up.  
"You need to talk to Len," Iris starts after she takes her turtle from her father's hands. "Even after Eddie helped save him from the bank robbers, he's still acting like he's going to murder him."  
"Eddie is your boyfriend," Joe says, not wanting to get into the middle of it. "You talk to him."  
"I tried, Dad! He doesn't listen to me."  
"Why do you think he'll listen to me?"  
"Because you are the General and we are your underlings!" Iris wraps her arms around her father and places her chin on his chest. "Please, Daddy? Just try? For me?"  
Joe sighs in defeat, unable to resist any of his children's doe eyes.  
"Alright...Fine, I'll talk to him."  
"Thank you!" Iris leans up to kiss her father on the cheek.  
"No promises," Joe points out as he grabs his coat.  
"Any progress will be better than what I have right now."  
"Clean this up before you leave!" Joe orders as he leaves the house. "I mean it!"  
The detective meets Barry outside the house as he walks to his car.  
"Hey, Joe," the brunette greets the man with a smile. "Where are you going?"  
"To talk to some sense into your over protective brother," Joe answers, not looking forward to his task at all. "Hey, you think you can do me a favor?"  
"Sure," Barry shrugs.  
"Make sure Iris actually cleans up her mess."  
"You know she never does."  
Joe nods his head as he opens the driver's side door, "Wishful thinking, but try?"  
"I'll see what I can do," Barry shrugs again. He waves as his foster father drives off, then turns back to the house with an ominous expression.  
'It's a good thing I have super speed,' the brunette thinks as he heads for the door.

\---

Len is at his computer when it beeps with a match to his finger print. He gives the screen his full attention as he opens the document with the information.  
The screen shines out:  
'Match: Mick Rory'  
Len carefully looks around, noting that Detective Thawne and his foster father were out of the room. He quickly deletes the file and grabs up his coat as he heads for the door.

\---

Joe heads into the precinct, expecting to find his boy waiting for the results of his finger print search and is surprised to find the chair empty.  
He pulls aside an officer to ask, "Do you know where Len went?"  
The officer shakes their head, "Sorry, detective. I wasn't watching him."  
"Thanks," Joe smiles at the man, running a hand over his head as he tries to think if the young man had told him about something else he was going to do.  
As a double check, Joe checks his phone for messages but there's nothing. He tries calling Len, but it goes straight to voicemail.  
Confusion wars with worry as Joe goes to Len's desk to check it over. There are not notes anywhere and the computer is showing anything.  
Joe checks the computer for fingerprint results and finds a recently deleted file waiting for final purge from the system. He restores it and frowns at a familiar name, Mick Rory.  
The detective curses as he pulls out his phone again.  
"Hey, Joe, Iris cleaned up her mess, no worries," Barry's happy voice answers.  
"Barry, we've got a problem," Joe speaks over his son's enthusiasm. "The car theft from before was done by Mick Rory. You remember him?"  
"Wasn't he that kid who visited Len when he hurt his ankle?"  
"Yeah," the detective rushes out the door and heads for his car. "I think Len went after him. Do you think your friends at STAR Labs can help look for him?"  
"Absolutely," the brunette assures the older man. "I'll go out to look for him myself."  
"Good," Joe inwardly sighs in relief. With his super speed, Barry was bound to find Len. "Let me know when you find him, okay?"  
"Will do," Barry assures him, then hangs up.  
Joe gets in his car and drives for STAR Labs.

\---

Len finds Mick at an old meeting place. He was surprised the building still stood, it was partially dilapidated when he was still a teenager.  
The red car is there.  
His long ago teenage partner is now a grown man with no hair, leaning against his prize with a pack of beer on the hood.  
"Never thought you'd stoop so low as to become a badge," Mick growls, his eyes eyes shining with intoxication. "Or that you'd arrest an old friend."  
"It's nice to see you too, Mick," Len drawls. He had turned his phone off, not wanting his family to be able to track him with it. Every survival instinct in him was roaring with how stupid he was acting. "What have you been doing? Other than grabbing yourself a shiny new set of wheels?"  
"Oh, you know," Mick shrugs. "A little this, a little that."  
The more hulking figure takes a few swaying steps over to the smaller one.  
"You went away and got all the fun knocked out of you," Mick chuckles.  
"And you got dumb and drunk," Len counters with narrowed eyes. "You left an obvious finger print at the crime scene, Mick. How can you be making such rookie mistakes after all these years?"  
"Maybe because my master planner switched sides," Mick growls. "I had a plan, you know. To get you out when they tried to send you back to Juvie. I was going to crash the van and let you out. I thought we'd run off and start over. You and me against the world. The best criminals anyone had ever seen."  
"Sound kind of nice," Len muses with a smirk. "But I found something better, Mick. Something you can't steal. Something priceless."  
The larger man snorts, "What?"  
"A family," Len says. He sighs as he pulls out his wallet.  
"Listen," the trainee says as he approaches the other man. "The police will be after you soon. You need to go, get out of town. Leave the car here, I'll wipe it down. Here," he hands over all the cash on him and a credit card. "Use the cash to buy a bus ticket, then the card for whatever food or motel stay you need. In a few weeks I'll report it stolen."  
"I'm not a charity case," Mick glares down at the offering.  
"You saved my life, Mick," Len glares back at him. "I'm not going to see you put in prison if I can stop it. Now, please. Just take it and go!"  
The larger man's eyes dart from Len's face to the money a few times, then he takes the offering and shoves it in his pocket.  
"Cash for the ticket out of town, then the card," Len reminds the man. "The closest bus station isn't too far from here. You can walk it."  
"Why don't you just drive me?" Mick asks, eyeing the man suspiciously.  
"Because any minute now I'm going to be tracked down and I can't be seen with you if there is going to be any hope of you getting away with this," Len goes back to his car for a rag, then walks over to the abandoned car.  
"Go!" the trainee shouts at the man still standing there, glaring at him.  
With a scowl, Mick takes off down the road towards the bus station.

 

Len wipes off the handles, steering wheel, dash, and the buckles quickly.  
He's leaning back, body out of the car as he tries to think of where else to wipe, when The Flash suddenly stops at the back of the car.  
"Are you okay?" Barry asks, looking his foster brother over for injuries.  
"I found the car," Len drawls, motioning to it as he pockets the rag. "Why are you all dressed up? Was there an emergency?"  
"Yeah," the hero frowns. "My idiotic older brother drove off without a word and turned his phone off."  
"What?" Len pulls out his phone and pretends to be surprised that it was off. "Strange...I must have turned it off on accident when I sat on it." He turns a fake smile to his foster brother, "Sorry about that. Was Joe terribly worried?"  
Barry knows his brother is lying, the smile wasn't fooling him in the slightest.  
He puts a hand to his comm. to tell his team and foster father he found Len.  
"Is he hurt?" Joe's worried voice asks.  
"No," the speedster replies. "He's fine."  
"That's great, because I'm going to beat some sense into that boy."

\---

At home, Len sits in a chair while Lisa, Iris, Barry, and Joe loom over him with disapproving frowns.  
"What?" Len asks after almost ten minutes of silence.  
"That's what we'd like to know," Lisa remarks.  
"We know you went to see Mick," Joe adds. "I found the report you tried to delete of his finger print being on that car cover."  
"I know he was your friend, but you can't tamper with an investigation over this guy, Len," Barry tells his foster brother. "He's not worth ruining your life over."  
"Mick's the reason I'm still alive," Len counters automatically. He looks away from his family's startled expressions. "Look, Mick saved me in Juvie, then he saved me from Mueller. Both times I could have died, but I didn't. Because of him."  
"Len," Iris puts her hand on her foster brother's shoulder. "We understand your desire to want to protect him, to still be his friend and help him out. But you can't throw away everything you worked for in order to do that. You can be a good friend and a good police officer at the same time."  
Len sighs, both hands rubbing at his eyes briefly before looking up at his family with a small smirk.  
"It won't happen again," Len tells them. "I promise."  
"Good," Joe releases a breath he didn't realize he was holding. He runs a hand over his head and mourns the loss of more of his hair.  
Iris smiles as she gets an idea, "You will, however, have to make this up to us, Len."  
"Oh?" Len looks up at his foster sister. "How so?"  
Iris's smile grows, "You need to stop threatening Eddie."  
"No way," Len shakes his head definitively.  
"Len-"  
"If I don't give him a hard time, he'll just walk all over you."  
"Eddie is not that kind of guy!"  
"Because I keep him in check."  
"Len!"  
"Iris!"  
"Daddy!"  
Joe stares at his kids as they all look to him.  
"Len," the detective looks to his boy. "Only one threat a day from now on. Got it?"  
"Two and you have a deal."  
"Fine."  
"Dad!" Iris tries to protest.  
"It's that or he never stops," the detective throws his hands in the air.  
The doorbell rings. Lisa runs over to answer it. Eddie steps into the room with a bright smile which falters slightly when he sees Len.  
"Is this a bad time?" the blonde asks, feet already retreating.  
"Come on in, detective," Len rises from his chair, but Iris pushes him back down.  
"Eddie and I are going out for dinner and then we're going home," Iris announces to the group as she walks over to her boyfriend. "I don't want to hear any complaints from any of you and I expect to see a more mature family tomorrow."  
Iris herds Eddie out of the house, Lisa waving at them as they go then closing the door.  
Lisa crosses her arms as she walks back to the rest of her family.  
"Iris does know what family she belongs to, right?" the brunette asks. "A more mature family? Who is she kidding?"  
Len smirks while Barry laughs and Joe rolls his eyes. 

\---

**Author's Note:**

> ***I own nothing, nada, zip, zilch.***


End file.
